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December 2, 2011

THENKUZHAL MURUKKU-STEP BY STEP RECIPE|DIWALI SNACKS RECIPES

Mostly we all make thenkuzhal for diwali or some special occasions. I love this murukku since my childhood days.I used to do all the pre preparatory works like buying rice and dal , grinding it in flour mill,sieving etc.I sit with my mom & aachi when they make this for diwali especially to get the last batch of murukku,My mom make a batch of half cooked murukku( we call it “arai vekkaadu” in tamil) for me.I love this murukku more than the crispy ones. I eat it hot immediately after taking out from the oil.Even today,my MIL make this specially for me.How sweet !! .I saw so many thenkuzhal recipes in blogosphere with different proportions of rice and urad dal . I wanted to share my version too.I tried to take step by step pics for beginners for the first time.I really admire our fellow bloggers who blog recipes with step by step pics for each and every post.They have so much of patience and skill to do this. I really don’t have both .I feel sweets and savouries need step by step presentation for better understanding. Hope this post helps beginners. Feel free to leave your comments about my presentation.I will improve in my further posts.Please go through the Notes section too.. Now coming to my version..

“””PLEASE HAVE A LOOK AT THE “POINTS TO REMEMBER” BEFORE STARTING..”””

Thenkuzhal murukku

White thenkuzhal murukku for Diwali !

Cuisine:Indian

Category:Savories

Serves:25 nos

Prep time:15 Minutes

Cook time:20 Minutes

Total time:35 Minutes

INGREDIENTS

Raw rice/Maavu arisi - 5 cups

Round urad dal - 3/4 cup

Fried gram dal/Pottukadalai - 1/4 cup

Butter – 4 tbsp (1/4 cup)

Asafetida / hing – 1/2 tsp

Jeera / cumin seeds or Black sesame seeds – 2 tbsp

Salt & water – As needed.

Cooking oil – for deep frying..

METHOD

Heat a kadai and dry roast urad dal slightly without changing its colour. Roast till nice aroma comes from urad dal. Switch off the flame and add the fried gram dal. Now mix the rice, roasted urad dal and fried gram dal. Grind in flour mill or powder it in mixie. If u use mixie to grind the mixture, please don’t forget to sieve the flour. Flour should be very fine in texture. This is called “murukku maavu”.

Melt butter and set aside.

To this murukku maavu,add salt ,melted butter, hing , jeera or sesame seeds and water to make a non sticky dough. Take the murukku press and mould with one whole. Fill the dough and set aside..

Heat the oil in a broad kadai and and press the murukku in circular motion directly in oil or press the murukku in a polythene sheet or in the back of ladle separately and then drop in hot oil. This way u get a nice shape. After u press the murukku , please stand a few feet away from the kadai.Sometimes , very rarely murukku may burst like seedai . If it doesn’t burst, then proceed.

Cook for sometime.Flip and cook for some more time till the hiss sound and bubbles ceases .Do it in medium flame.Adjust the flame whenever needed.

Remove and drain in a paper towel..Store in an air tight container after it cools down.

Don’t forget to try the half cooked murukku in the last batch.For this, after u press the murukku in oil , just flip immediately and remove in 10 secs.. Eat it hot !!

White colored , crispy thenkuzhal is ready to enjoy !!

Note

When u make murukku in large quantities , make the dough in batches to avoid the dough from drying.Also cover the dough with a damp cloth or a lid while cooking murukku. This helps in getting white colored murukku for all the batches. Otherwise color may vary for the last batches.

We have added fried gram dal and butter to get the crispness & white color . But usually fried gram dal is not added in thenkuzhal.Its purely optional.

Adding too much of butter makes the murukku look oily and becomes soggy very soon.Shelf life gets reduced.

Adding more urad dal flour or too much of roasting the urad dal results in dark colored murukku.So make sure u roast the urad dal without changing the color..

If u use store bought rice flour and urad dal flour , the ratio would be 8:1.No need to roast the urad dal flour if it is ready made.

The murukku flour should be very fine in texture otherwise it may burst while cooking. So i always sieve the flour for safer side

Use enough oil for deep frying. Add more oil after few batches if necessary.

Drop or press the murukku only when the oil becomes hot. U can find this by dropping a pinch of flour. It rises up quickly.This is the correct heating point. Do not let the oil fume. Always keep the flame in medium for even cooking.

Instead of pressing in oil directly , u can try pressing it in the back of ladle greased with oil or greased polythene sheets. This way u’ll get nice shape..

After cooking when u break the murukku , u can c a hole in the middle of the murukku like funnel. This denotes the murukku is perfect !!

Perfect thenkuzhal must form a hole.Can u see the hole in the broken murukku piece